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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25279129">Different</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gumnut/pseuds/Gumnut'>Gumnut</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Thunderbirds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dancing, Gen, Social Anxiety, ship is mostly setting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:07:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,321</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25279129</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gumnut/pseuds/Gumnut</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>John Tracy is different.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Penelope Creighton-Ward/Gordon Tracy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Different</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title: Different</p>
<p>Author: Gumnut</p>
<p>12 Jul 2020</p>
<p>Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS</p>
<p>Rating: Teen</p>
<p>Summary: John is different.</p>
<p>Word count: 2320</p>
<p>Spoilers &amp; warnings: Gordon/Penelope</p>
<p>Timeline: Post series.</p>
<p>Author’s note: Nutty’s Fandomversary 2020 Fic One. For @such-a-random-rambler who asked for John and dancing.</p>
<p>I know I said I wouldn’t include ship, but I ended up using a canon ship for the setting. I hope that is okay. I hope you enjoy it anyway ::hugs::</p>
<p>Many thanks to @scribbles97 for the reading and cheerleading ::hugs:: It was fun writing together :D</p>
<p>Disclaimer: Mine? You’ve got to be kidding. Money? Don’t have any, don’t bother.</p>
<p>-o-o-o-</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Was it wrong to wish for an emergency in the middle of a brother’s wedding?</p>
<p>John sighed. No, he couldn’t wish that, not in a million years.</p>
<p>He glanced over at the happy couple Gordon was all excited smiles and Penelope was gazing at him with the closest he had ever seen her to displaying astonishment. Her expression had been like that since she said ‘I do’.</p>
<p>He had never seen Gordon smile so much.</p>
<p>It was lovely.</p>
<p>He wished his brother all the happiness in the world. He was due so much.</p>
<p>The gardens of the Creighton-Ward manor were decked out in intertwined yellows and pinks. All the shades of sunshine and pink sunsets. He wouldn’t have thought the two colours would work together, but then who would have thought Gordon and Penelope would work together either.</p>
<p>The pinks covered the spectrum from deep magenta through to candy floss pastels, the yellows ran from sunflowers to lemon ice and the breeze caught the decorations, gently rustling them.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t the colours, his brothers or even Penelope who had him nervous.</p>
<p>It was a wedding.</p>
<p>And a wedding of one of England’s elite.</p>
<p>He was standing some distance from a huge dance floor laid out in the centre of the party. As a brother to the groom, there was no way he was going to get out of the dancing this time around.</p>
<p>As a Tracy, a family of upcoming stature, his father had made sure all his sons of the correct age had taken dancing lessons.</p>
<p>John hated every minute of it.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the dancing itself. He could dance. Music was simple mathematics. A beat was simple to follow and often quite pleasant. His brothers didn’t know it…well, he hoped they didn’t know it, but there had been days on Five where he made full use of the sound system he had wired into the satellite. Some of his favourite movie soundtracks, both cinematic and popular rock had rattled Five’s cahelium hull many times.</p>
<p>His brothers had no need to know.</p>
<p>Alone he could dance to his heart’s content. Express what he wanted to. Feel the music.</p>
<p>At a party like this?</p>
<p>He’d rather shoot himself in the foot.</p>
<p>Because it involved people. People with expectations.</p>
<p>He was aware he was different, didn’t respond necessarily the way people expected. At a distance in space, he was in control. Here surrounded by the need for correct conduct, eyes that followed and stared, impeccable deportment, hell, how he held his fork while eating…it was much harder.</p>
<p>He was a Tracy. He had money and power. People looked up to him like they looked up to all his brothers. But somewhere deep inside the school boy who never quite fit in, who was mocked for his interests by his classmates, who was questioned when he knew too much for his age, who was made aware very clearly by even those who were trying to be kind that he was different.</p>
<p>And apparently different was a bad thing.</p>
<p>He was an adult now. He knew that different was actually a good thing, that different people were the ones who made the actual needed differences in the world, the leaders, the makers and the game changers.</p>
<p>He was a Tracy and they were making the world a better place. He had his confidence; he knew he was doing good.</p>
<p>But here, surrounded by so many people, he reverted. This was why he did his best to avoid these situations.</p>
<p>This was his brother’s wedding and he would do anything for his brothers.</p>
<p>So here he was.</p>
<p>He was dressed to the nines. Black tuxedo, crisp white shirt, Penelope’s boutonnière – Gordon called it a buttonhole bouquet - a yellow and pink Spathoglottis orchid matched with the pinkest Pohutukawa flowers Grandma could find on the Island. He wouldn’t have classified them as quite pink, more a red, but their presence meant a great deal standing here on the other side of the planet. The flowers were matched with a sunflower yellow cummerbund.</p>
<p>The clothing worked, despite the colours. Virgil had muttered something about John’s hair bridging the pinks and the yellows quite nicely.</p>
<p>John stared at his perfectly polished shoes.</p>
<p>God, he hated just standing around.</p>
<p>“John?”</p>
<p>He looked up to find Kayo standing beside him. She was dressed in a figure hugging sunflower yellow gown, glowing satin against the darkening landscape as the sun itself was dipping towards the horizon.</p>
<p>He smiled at her. “You look lovely, Kayo.” She did. Her dark hair was curled over one shoulder and her green eyes were lit up by her dress, her olive skin a beautiful contrast.</p>
<p>She smiled at him. “Thank you.” A glance towards the crowd. “However, I was wondering what you were doing over here all by yourself.”</p>
<p>A shrug and another glance at his shoes. “Seemed like a good place to stand.”</p>
<p>She eyed him a moment before holding out a hand. “Dance with me?”</p>
<p>He straightened. “Umm, aren’t you supposed to dance with the best man?” He stared into the crowd and sure enough, Virgil was peering out at him, Scott standing tall beside him. John sighed. “Did Virgil send you?” To check on his social-klutz of a younger brother.</p>
<p>That earned him an arched eyebrow and a thinned pair of lips. “No. I just wanted to dance with the best dancer in the room.”</p>
<p>“Ah, you’re referring to Virgil, and possibly Scott.”</p>
<p>To his consternation, her smile returned. “You forget, John. I’m your sister. I attended those same classes you did. I know who is the best dancer amongst my brothers. Virgil and Scott say the right things, but you know how to move.”</p>
<p>He blinked. “Excuse me?”</p>
<p>“You’re elegant, John.” That smile widened and the fairy-lights reflected off her lipstick. She held up her hand again. “Dance with your sister?”</p>
<p>Before he could think his hand was in hers and she was walking him towards the dance floor.</p>
<p>Gordon and Penelope were already well into their first dance. Back straight, feet placed perfectly, his little brother was all eyes for the woman in his arms.</p>
<p>Kayo led him onto the floor without hesitation and suddenly there were eyes on him. He swallowed, but Kayo didn’t give him any time to think, stepping into his personal space in a way that triggered reflexes and before he knew it, he was leading her around the floor in perfectly remembered form.</p>
<p>Numbers, beat and pacing scrolled through his mind as the dance, not a simple one by any description, took up the space in his mind that was usually full of trepidation in this situation. He didn’t have time to think beyond placing his feet in the correct places, arching his back and dipping his sister at the appropriate time.</p>
<p>He extended his arm, rolling Kayo out into a perfect spin.</p>
<p>Yellow satin twirled.</p>
<p>He drew her back and flipped her around into a dip. She smiled at him as their eyes caught.</p>
<p>His bicep contracted and she was looking up at him from his chest level for a split second before the music shifted and they moved into the next step.</p>
<p>John was vaguely aware that other dancers had joined them on the floor. There was a varying level of skill. He glimpsed Virgil with Grandma and his father with Aunt Val. Gordon and Penelope twirled past with a laugh at one point.</p>
<p>To his surprise, he found himself smiling. It was hard not to with Kayo continually smirking at him.</p>
<p>Alan was suddenly spinning around them with Penelope in his arms.</p>
<p>John’s eyes widened, but Alan was grinning fit to bust a blood vessel.</p>
<p>His eyes found Gordon dancing with Mrs Creighton-Ward on the far side of the floor. Penelope’s mother was a handful and John held no envy for his little brother on that front.</p>
<p>But then his brothers and family were swallowed by the crowd. This was a wedding for show. Penelope was a woman of strong standing in the social circuits. The Tracys were surrounded by unknowns.</p>
<p>“John.” A finger reached up and turned his head to look down at his dance partner. “Dance with me.”</p>
<p>She had a challenge in her eyes.</p>
<p>The music increased in tempo and he moved to compensate.</p>
<p>They spun.</p>
<p>They moved.</p>
<p>Her hand on his shoulder.</p>
<p>His hand on her waist.</p>
<p>Their fingers clasped.</p>
<p>They moved with the music.</p>
<p>She kept his attention. She focussed him. This was little more than a workout in the Island gym. Every movement planned. Precise.</p>
<p>A dance.</p>
<p>Kayo was a woman in full control of her body. John, ever so precise in space, ever so crippled by gravity until he adapted back to Earth norm. He had been down from Five in preparation. He was fit. He could move.</p>
<p>And he was elegant.</p>
<p>Awareness of the lack of other people on the dance floor came slowly. The silence below the music only crept up and took him by surprise as the third song came to a slow and final end. He spun Kayo out to the length of his arm, only to draw her back in and dip her to the final notes before bringing her to a smooth stop in his embrace.</p>
<p>The music ended in total silence.</p>
<p>He looked up.</p>
<p>The two of them were ringed by the crowd. They were the centre of attention.</p>
<p>The silence continued until Virgil let out a yell and began clapping like a madman.</p>
<p>Everyone joined in.</p>
<p>The applause was loud. Gordon hooted at the top of his lungs, fist pumping the air. Even his father had a proud grin on his face over his enthusiastically clapping hands.</p>
<p>John flushed, but couldn’t help but grin at the uproar of approval.</p>
<p>How long they had been dancing with an audience, he had no idea, but he was pleasantly buzzed, his heart beating strongly. His family all had love in their eyes and it hit him in the chest.</p>
<p>Kayo nudged him gently with her elbow. “Told you.”</p>
<p>He turned to her, pleasant endorphins making his head spin just a little, and hugged her. It wasn’t his thing, but it was in this moment.</p>
<p>Then there were brothers and claps on his back.</p>
<p>“Man, where did you learn how to do that?” Gordon was staring at him in amazement.</p>
<p>“Uh, dance class. You were there.”</p>
<p>“Umm.”</p>
<p>Penelope’s laugh was light and loving as she wrapped her arms around her gobsmacked husband.</p>
<p>Virgil grabbed him in a hug fit to break bones. When he finally escaped, he realised his brother had tears in his eyes.</p>
<p>What?</p>
<p>But he was grinning like a loon.</p>
<p>“It was only a dance, Virgil.”</p>
<p>That earned him another bonecrusher of heavy lifting arms.</p>
<p>Scott eventually dragged him off. John had no idea what had gotten into him. After all, Virgil didn’t try to smush his sister like that and she was half of the equation in this.</p>
<p>“That was quite a show, John.”</p>
<p>Scott was the only one of his brothers who had the height to look him in the eye. There was a pile of approval in that gaze along with a little pride. His brother was proud of him.</p>
<p>It was only a dance!</p>
<p>He’d seen less when he helped save the world. Not that he didn’t feel valued by his family, but he was flummoxed at why this moment was worth so much attention.</p>
<p>“It was only a dance.”</p>
<p>His brother’s expression shifted to one of fondness and a hand landed on his shoulder. “Well, it was a damn good one.” His shoulder was squeezed gently. “Come join us?” He gestured towards one of the tables where Gordon had cornered Virgil and was obviously poking fun at him. There was a chance the groom may be murdered by the frown forming on Virgil’s forehead.</p>
<p>“Sure.”</p>
<p>Scott grinned and his arm shifted to wrap around his shoulders, drawing him towards his brothers and their family banter.</p>
<p>He glanced back at Kayo and found her grinning ever so fondly at him. She made shooing motions with her hands before spinning in a swirl of yellow satin and heading once again off to the bridal table where Penelope was in deep discussion with her mother.</p>
<p>He stared after her a moment.</p>
<p>“John, you owe me fifty bucks. Virgil cried first.”</p>
<p>“I did not cry.”</p>
<p>“You always cry at weddings. It was easy money, even if fleet of foot here hadn’t dazzled us all with his mad dancing skillz, you were clearly all glassy eyed at the altar.”</p>
<p>“So were you.”</p>
<p>That brought Gordon up short and he stopped a moment as if his brain was caught in processing. “Nope, we’re not talking about me. Talking about you. John, hand over the money.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I don’t know. The bet was whether Virgil would be the first. If you were crying on stage, that makes you the loser.”</p>
<p>“I did not cry.”</p>
<p>Virgil piped up from where he was sitting, repeating himself. “Neither did I.”</p>
<p>“Guys, really?” Scott was rolling his eyes.</p>
<p>“My wedding, my rules.”</p>
<p>That prompted a discussion on whether it was Gordon’s or Penelope’s wedding and who was wearing the pants in this relationship.</p>
<p>John sat back and let the banter roll over him. He had to admit that with his brothers it was easier. There were still people staring at him. Hell, they were actually talking and whispering at the moment. But the difference was that if he trained Five on them, the chances were that the discussions weren’t about how bad his differences were, but how good.</p>
<p>He was different and it made these situations hard. But he had a fantastic family and really being different wasn’t so bad. In fact, a lot of the time it was so much better than being just average.</p>
<p>He needed to remember that.</p>
<p>-o-o-o-</p>
<p>FIN.</p>
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